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Someone is moving into the apartment next door from Nicklas. It wouldn’t be a big deal under normal circumstances, but considering that neither Nicklas nor Rosa has slept in the past two nights, it’s a disaster. Rosa is teething and hates everything, she doesn’t want to be put down into her own bed, but when Nicklas holds her, she keeps struggling. She has no patience for diaper changes, shows no interest in toys and Nicklas is at the end of his rope.
The new neighbor is Russian, if Nicklas hears the shouting movers right. There seems to be a bunch of men carrying up furniture and boxes, all of them sort of big and burly. Nicklas spies on them through the peephole, not caring that he’s turning into the stereotype of a nosy neighbor. He hopes they’re not some kind of gangsters and then feels bad about thinking that.
“Do you want a cold chewtoy baby? I bet it would make you feel better.” Nicklas tries to sweet talk Rosa, who glares at him, unimpressed and lets out another deafening wail. She’s showing off her two brand new teeth, her mouth wide open, so Nicklas plops the teething ring in there.
It stops the wailing for a few minutes and Nicklas walks around his living room, glancing at the clock on every turn, like he can make time go faster so he can give her more painkillers. Now that Rosa’s stopped crying for a change he can hear his new neighbor settling in. There muffled bangs and then the sound of drilling. He can’t hear voices through the wall, which is a relief, as he’s still hoping Rosa will tire herself out enough for them both to get some sleep.
Rosa has other ideas though, and when she hasn’t fallen asleep by noon, Nicklas gives up, packs her into the stroller and heads out. Usually she’s out like a light when he takes her out for walks.
There’s a U Haul parked in front of the building, doors open with furniture and boxes haphazardly spilling out of the back and onto the sidewalk.
“Oh, are we making baby cry? I’m sorry,” a voice says.
Nicklas turns to look at the man who’d spoken. The guy’s tall, has messy brown hair and is wearing a sweatshirt with the Washington Capitals logo on it. His nose looks like it’s been broken in the past and there’s a big gap between his front teeth. Nicklas is even more worried that his new neighbor is part of the Russian mafia.
“It’s not your fault: she’s teething and it makes her cranky. Welcome to the building,” Nicklas tells him and walks away quickly.
~*~
It seems like there’s only the one Russian living next door. Nicklas wonders why a single guy needs an apartment with three bedrooms and Nicklas curses his imagination for coming up with some scary ideas about it. The man also keeps weird hours and disappears for days at random intervals, which isn’t helping put Nicklas’ mind at ease.
Usually Nicklas wouldn’t keep such close tabs on his neighbors. He has no idea who lives opposite him, which is rather strange on its own, now that he thinks about it, but really, he normally has better things to do than monitor the lives of people living on the same floor with him, but Rosa has developed an annoying affinity for his elusive neighbor.
The neighbor, who Nicklas has named Gaptooth for lack of a better option, has a habit of singing really loudly in the bathroom. The sound of it travels amazingly well through the wall or along the pipes to Nicklas’s bathroom. The transmission is clear enough that Nicklas is able to hear the words, not that Gaptooth ever sings in English.
Sadly, or amazingly, Rosa has decided that Gaptooth’s singing is the best thing she’s ever heard and will always stop crying when she hears it. Not only that, she also falls asleep. Something she hasn’t been doing much for the past two weeks. Nicklas is desperate enough to record the singing but it doesn’t seem to fool Rosa.
“Why do you have to be like this? Do you hate me?” Nicklas asks Rosa when he’s up again at two am, trying to get her to eat some applesauce. She’s been refusing to eat most things for the past few days, but seems to accept apple flavored things if the mood strikes her.
The building walls aren’t that thin, but Nicklas has trained himself to hyper vigilance when it comes to monitoring his new neighbor, so he hears the guy get home. It doesn’t matter that what he’s doing is insane, he’s beyond caring. Nicklas can’t remember when he slept more than a few hours at a time and Gaptooth has been gone three days. He needs help.
Nicklas storms out of his apartment and to his neighbors, Rosa still crying in his arms and bangs on the door.
“Yes?” Gaptooth asks when he opens the door, staring at them wide eyed.
Nicklas can’t blame him, they must both look deranged. Rosa wailing her lungs out and Nicklas, well he hasn’t showered in two days and he’s wearing ratty basketball shorts and a tee that’s pretty much covered in baby drool and snot.
“You have to help me. My baby won’t sleep without your singing. Please I will pay you if you just sing to her,” Nicklas begs the man.
Gaptooth looks down at Rosa’s miserable face and offers her a soft smile, “Baby has good taste. I will sing, what does she like?”
Nicklas wants to kiss Gaptooth out of gratitude, but instead he drags the man back into his apartment. This might be once in a life opportunity and he needs to take full advantage. That means putting Rosa in bed first so he won’t wake her up by accident when he tries to put her down later.
Rosa hates her bed these days and her face is bright red from screaming. Nicklas swallows with some difficulty, he feels like crying too, he hates seeing her this miserable, “I’m really sorry about this, but sing to her, please?”
“Of course, don’t worry about it,” Gaptooth says and kneels on the floor even as he starts to sing. He’s a terrible singer, there’s no getting around it, but the tune sounds like a lullaby and Rosa is instantly mesmerized.
Rosa turns her head to look at Gaptooth and her crying subsides into these little hiccuping sobs and then to nothing. It only takes a few minutes before she’s fast asleep.
Gaptooth looks up at Nicklas and grins widely and offers him a thumbs up. Nicklas suffocates a laugh into his sleeve and offers Gaptooth a hand up. It’s only now that he notices that the man is wearing a nice suit, but has lost the tie somewhere along the way.
They tiptoe out of Rosa’s room and Nicklas closes the door almost completely before following his guest to the living room.
“Thank you so so much, I don’t know if a baby has ever had this much trouble growing teeth, but if it’s happened I want to send a letter of condolences to their parents,” Nicklas says and picks up one of Rosa’s stuffed toys up from the floor. He’s embarrassed about how messy things have gotten here, but there’s never a moments peace to even clean up anymore.
“Having a baby is hard work, my mom always reminds me. Hi, I’m Alex, I don’t think we ever got introduced,” Alex says and smiles brightly at Nicklas, like getting dragged into strangers apartments in the middle of the night to sing to babies is a totally normal thing that happens to him regularly.
“Nicklas, nice to meet you. Let me apologise again, how can I repay you?” Nicklas asks and dumps the armful of toys he’d gathered up onto the couch. It wasn’t going to help with the mess in the long run, but at least that stuff wasn’t on the floor anymore.
“Don’t worry about it. I like your baby, good lungs. It’s good to get to know some people in the building too. I’m having my house renovated and I had to move out of the way.” Alex shares and then yawns hugely.
Nicklas yawns too and realizes again how bone tired he really is. Alex seems to notice this and he pets Nicklas on the shoulder. “You need to sleep while baby is sleeping. I will go away now.”
Nicklas follows him to the door and leans against it as Alex walks out, “I will sing to baby again if you need. She has good taste, Russian music best.”
Nicklas laughs, charmed against his better judgement, “Good night Alex.”
“Good night Nicky,” Alex says and walks down the hall to his own door.
~*~
The worst seems to be over a week after the first time Alex came over to sing to Rosa. Nicklas has managed to get some sleep and the apartment doesn’t look like a bomb hit it anymore. It’s all thanks to Alex, who has been popping in to visit almost every day. Nicklas has a suspicion that Alex now thinks they’re friends and maybe he’s right about it too.
It also helps things along when Alex mentions what he does for a living and Nicklas doesn’t have to worry about having a mobster in his home. He doesn’t really know how to feel about having a professional hockey player there either, but so far it has worked out pretty well.
There’s something completely disarming about the way Alex acts around them. The way he’s always willing to give Nicklas a hand with Rosa, playing with her and reading to her. “It’s good practice for me too, we learn English together with her,” Alex jokes as he grabs ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ from the coffee table.
Rosa always wants Alex to carry her around when he comes over and she will happily babble and coo at him for ages. It would make Nicklas feel bad for Alex if he didn’t seem just as enamored by her as she is with him.
It’s not just Rosa, who’s being charmed by Alex either. Not that Nicklas likes to admit that. It’s just that Alex makes him laugh so hard sometimes that his stomach aches and there are tears in his eyes and it makes Nicklas realize how lonely he’s been for a while now.
Then there’s the way Alex makes him feel when he touches Nicklas. Even the most casual touch makes Nicklas take notice and it makes nervous excitement run through him. Nicklas doesn’t have defenses against the tactile affection that Alex seems to exude.
“You will come to a game soon? I show a photo of me and my biggest fan to guys and now they want to meet her too. I will pay for tickets,” Alex is saying and Nicklas blinks up from the million work emails that have piled up in his inbox. This had been his first chance to open his laptop in weeks and Nicklas had been sorting through them with growing sense of futility.
“What?” Nicklas asks.
“Now that baby is done being cranky you should come cheer me! There is afternoon game this weekend, it’s perfect,” Alex explains, like they’ve already agreed.
“Uh, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Aren’t the games really loud?” Nicklas tries, even though he has been pretty curious. Curious enough to watch the last Caps game and he’s been avoiding anything to do with hockey since he quit playing at fifteen.
Alex mimes putting something over his ears, “You get the thing, baby sized for her ears. Guys bring their babies all the time, is fine.”
“If you’re sure it won’t be any trouble,” Nicklas says but Alex is already beaming at him and digging his pocket for his phone.
“I will call right now,” Then he seems to remember something, “And I have to go. Need my pregame nap. But I will bring tickets tomorrow.”
Sometimes hanging out with Alex makes Nicklas feel almost dizzy. He moves so fast and so confidently from one thing to the next that Nicklas has trouble keeping up.
“Such a weird man,” He murmurs to Rosa as he picks her up.
~*~
On the gameday Alex comes to get them and then somehow bullies Nicklas into wearing his jersey and helps put a tiny one on Rosa too. He’d also found tiny earmuffs for her, so Nicklas can’t even complain about the jersey.
Alex drops them off at their seats and says hi to the two women sitting next to Nicklas. He gathers from the tone that the women are wives or girlfriends of Alex’s teammates.
Alex doesn’t linger, “ Have fun, I Can’t be late for warmup. Bad example for the rookies,”
Nicklas snorts at that and tries not to think about young impressionable guys looking for Alex for guidance.
The women give Nicklas identical curious looks before they introduce themselves as Julianne and Anastacia. Nicklas smiles awkwardly at them and tries to answer the small talk even though he has a rising suspicion that these women somehow think he’s involved with Alex.
The game itself goes by in a flash, especially because he misses most of the second period as Rosa get’s cranky and hungry and he needs to take care of her. It’s not too bad though, she falls asleep after Nicklas feeds her and he get’s to watch the third period uninterrupted. Washington wins it on a powerplay with five minutes left on the clock and Nicklas can’t help but to smile at the exuberant celly Alex does after scoring.
Julianne, who's sitting closest to him leans over and says, her eyes glittering with amusement, “He’s showing off for you, that’s always so adorable.”
“Oh, no, he isn’t,” Nicklas tries to protest but she just laughs and pats his arm before turning back to watch the game.
The women lead Nicklas to the players area after the game and they wait outside. Nicklas feels incredibly awkward now, because it’s obvious they think he’s dating Alex. This isn’t just embarrassing for him but also potentially terrible for Alex. What if someone leaks this to the press? Then it won’t matter even if there’s nothing to the story.
Finally the players pour out of the locker room, showered and back in their suits. Alex makes a beeline to Nicklas and Rosa, grinning like a loon and with two other guys following closely behind.
“We had to see this to believe it, but it’s true. There’s an actual baby and he didn’t steal it from anyone,” one of the guys says and gently touches Rosa’s foot.
Rosa is awake and looking at the men with some curiosity, but she flails her arms out when he spots Alex. Nicklas sighs, put upon, as he transfers her to Alex’s arms. This seems to awe Alex’s teammates into silence as they all just stare at Alex holding Rosa and letting her babble at him.
It takes a while to extract themselves, but using Rosa’s need for dinner as an excuse works pretty well. Nicklas waits until they’re in the car and Rosa is strapped in her carseat on the back seat before he says, “Aren’t you worried that they all seem to think we’re together?”
Alex glances at him and shrugs. “No. I already told my mother too.”
Nicklas tries and fails not to gape at him. “Told your mother what?”
For the first time Nicklas has known Alex, he looks a bit unsure of himself.“That I met someone I like.”
“Oh,” Nicklas says, pauses and turns to stare at Alex properly, “Wait, was this some kind of a date?”
Alex is smiling again, “Yes, best date, has hockey, I score, you meet team, everyone loves Rosa.”
“You’re terrible,” Nicklas complains and tries not to smile. Maybe this will end in disaster, but to his surprise Nicklas is willing to give Alex a chance.
“I’m great,” Alex corrects him and adds, “and you can’t get rid of me now, Rosa likes my singing best.”
“I question both our tastes,” Nicklas grouses but doesn’t protest when Alex reaches over the middle console and takes his hand.